The list experiment: Piloting a new method for measuring abortion in Liberia

Heidi Moseson Lidow, University of California, San Francisco, 2013

Project abstract

Abortion is notoriously difficult to measure. This proposal outlines a new method of directly measuring abortion, the list experiment, which protects the privacy of a woman’s response and thereby reduces the pressure to underreport.

I propose to pilot this new method for measuring abortion among a sample of 1300 women of reproductive age (15-49 years) in Monrovia, Liberia. Women in Liberia have a high fertility rate, low use of contraception, and no legal access to abortion. Induced abortion is thought to be a major contributor to maternal mortality and morbidity in Liberia, but no information exists on the magnitude of the problem or the population that it affects. This pilot is the first step in building an evidence-based program for unintended pregnancy and abortion care in Liberia.